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1970s

The legendary Cuban orchestra Los Van Van returns this weekend to New York to close its US tour featuring a new songstress and a performance of its greatest hits plus a preview of its new project bringing back songs of the 1960s and '70s.

The argument between the Trump administration and its critics over a sustainable rate of economic growth raises profound questions about America’s future. Have we entered a prolonged period of slow growth? If so, how does that alter society and politics? Or will the “right” policies raise growth to past levels?

Del Rio is considered one of the deans of political cartooning, and in the 1960s and 1970s he published "Los Supermachos", and "Los Agachados," two humorous strips with critical views on Mexican politics and the regime dominated by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

New Jersey U.S. Senator Cory Booker introduced a measure recently on marijuana that could dramatically improve the lives of thousands of blacks and Latinos in the Philadelphia region if fully implemented, letter and spirit.

Youngstown again? As an avid spectator of politics, I’ve been hearing about that city in the Mahoning Valley of northeast Ohio for decades. Although it’s home to just 64,000 people, Youngstown gets more than its share of attention from politicians, media, filmmakers, and even a poetic singer/songwriter from Freehold, New Jersey.

This is the summer of our discontent. As Americans celebrate July 4, they are mad at their leaders, mad at their government and mad at each other. A recent Pew poll finds that “public trust in government remains near historic lows.” Just 20 percent of Americans trust the government to “do the right thing just about always or most of the time.” The comparable figures were 40 percent in 2000 and almost 80 percent in the early 1960s. There has been a long-term loss of trust.

One of the most intriguing mysteries of Latin American culture is what happened to the Maya civilization. How come after over 3,000 years of history, from about 2, 500 BC to 950 AD, most of the glorious Maya centers in Mesoamerica were abandoned? Before the arrival of the Europeans in the 1500’s magnificent cities like Tikal in Guatemala and Copán in Honduras had all but disappeared; left uninhabited, they were covered by thick jungle growth, hidden throughout the mountains and the lowlands.

Ever since Donald Trump’s election, a cottage industry of politicians, journalists, scholars and commentators has sought to understand what motivates Trump supporters. Theories have ranged from globalization to a rebellion against Washington elitism to racism. But the true cause may have been overlooked: the “postindustrial society.”

The 63-year-old author is known for his opposition to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and his support of the peace process. His son Uri was killed fighting in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah conflict.

It’s time to take a brief break from Donald Trump. Whatever you think of him, there’s no denying that he dominates the news cycle. We seem to assume that the nation’s future depends on Trump’s fate, for better or worse. The reality is otherwise: The nation’s future also hangs on larger economic and social trends that no president can shape.

The coal-mining jobs that President Trump thinks were destroyed by government regulation -- adopted to combat air pollution and global warming -- were actually lost to old-fashioned competition from other American firms and workers. Eastern coal mines lost market share to Western coal, which was cheaper. And natural gas grew at coal’s expense because it had low costs and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

We have yet another study that debunks the widespread notion that robots -- and other forms of automation, including “artificial intelligence” -- will destroy our jobs and lead to a future of permanently high unemployment. According to the study, that would completely rewrite history, which has shown job creation to be an enduring strength of the U.S. economy.

Growing up isn’t what it used to be. There’s a yawning gap between the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood: a period when millions of 20-somethings and 30-somethings have many adult freedoms without all the responsibilities. Social scientists have tried -- so far in vain -- to name this new life-stage, but no one should question its significance.

Urban rebellions in the United States are largely seen as the byproduct of African American rage. Thus, some Latinos might feel embarrassed that identical outbreaks of violence have occurred in the community.

Inequality is rising. Segregation by socioeconomic class, educational attainment and race is skyrocketing. The country is generally less dynamic and more risk-averse -- when people have the opportunity to move for a better quality of life or more rewarding job, they tend to settle for staying put.

Past a chalkboard that says, “Come inside to read a good book,” on one side and “Don’t be an asshole!” on the other, you come across a tattered SEPTA Union Strike poster from the early twentieth century, preserved underneath an equally withered-away lamination. A few cautious inches deep inside of this surreal time machine, a pillar manages to stand from the 1890s home of an anarchist feminist writer and speaker who lived near Drexel University.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, who suffered a heart attack two months ago, said he is well and and wanting to get back to work." He is waiting to play Pablo Picasso in a film by Carlos Saura showing the creative process of the famous painting "Guernica."